Why one group wants recreational marijuana banned along 8 Mile

Local officials are beginning to decide if they want medical marijuana businesses in their communities before the state starts giving out licenses next year.
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Maria Dickerson, 59, a 28-year Greenacres resident and president of the Greenacres Woodward Civic Association at her home in Green Acres, a Detroit neighborhood, on Thursday, July 12, 2018. Dickerson said although the city closed down the illegal dispensary near her home, she and others have observed activity there in recent months. The city said the facility was never authorized to open as a medical marijuana dispensary.(Photo: Cameron Pollack, Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo

Maria Dickerson sat on her porch and sighed, as she pointed in the direction of a shuttered medical marijuana facility on 8 Mile Road, less than a block from her Detroit home.

The Greenacres neighborhood, bounded by 8 Mile, is filled with stately brick homes and landscaped lawns. Yet, just beyond the tree-lined streets, the lengthy 8 Mile corridor has been inundated with medical marijuana dispensaries —some of which have been shut down within the past year for operating illegally, including one located at 8735 8 Mile, near Dickerson's home.

As voters face a ballot initiative this fall to legalize marijuana for recreational use,a growing concern among some residents about the proliferation of businesses selling marijuana has led the Greenacres Woodward Civic Association to ask the City of Detroit to ban the sale of recreational marijuana along a significant stretch of 8 Mile.

In a letter submitted to Mayor Mike Duggan and Gov. Rick Snyder last month, the association implored the city to amend its zoning ordinance to prohibit the sale of recreational marijuana between 8 Mile and 7 Mile Road, from Telegraph Road on the far west side to Kelly Road on the far east side.

"The skid-row atmosphere has already tipped some adjoining residential areas into hopeless blighted shells," association board member Peter Rhoades said in the letter, referring to the strip joints and seedy motels that already litter the area.

The association has also asked the state of Michigan to amend its zoning enabling act to clearly allow special zoning to prohibit recreational marijuana dispensaries or sale locations in areas like 8 Mile.

The city has already prohibited dispensaries from opening in certain parts of the city including much of the booming downtown and Midtown areas. Neighborhoods like Greenacres want the same consideration.

David Harns, a Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs spokesperson, said the state leaves local zoning decisions up to municipalities.

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Motor City Kush, one of the many medical marijuana dispensaries along 8 Mile.(Photo: Cameron Pollack, Detroit Free Press)

Detroit's Corporation Counsel Lawrence Garcia told the Free Press Monday that 57 medical marijuana dispensaries are currently legally authorized to operate in the city. Of that number, 17 are located on 8 Mile.

"Most of 8 Mile is zoned M3-M4, where there is no spacing requirement between dispensaries," Garcia wrote in an email.

"We have this issue in Detroit where it seems like we always get everything," Dickerson said. "That's why we're concerned. If you notice, as soon as you cross 8 Mile, that's Ferndale. I've been living in this community 30-plus years and we haven't seen anything on that side of 8 Mile, it's always here. The strip clubs, all of that. We just feel recreational marijuana is something we don't want in our community. That doesn't mean we're against it, we just want it in areas that are industrial. We just want it regulated more."

The city's current medical marijuana ordinance, which took effect March 1, 2016, prohibits dispensaries from operating in areas classified as "Gateway Radial Thoroughfares." According to the city's zoning ordinance, those areas include:

Woodward Avenue between Euclid Avenue and the Fisher Freeway (I-75).

Grand River Avenue between the Edsel Ford Freeway (I-94) and Cass Avenue.

Michigan Avenue between the Jeffries Freeway (I-96) and the John C. Lodge Freeway (M-10).

East Jefferson Avenue between Water Works Park (Garland Avenue/Marquette Ave.) and the Chrysler Freeway (I-375).

Amir Makled, a medical marijuana attorney who represents some Detroit dispensary clients, said he's concerned about the community's push to get a ban on the books ahead of the November vote.

"I think the will of the people will be displayed in the results of November and it's pretty obvious to me that I think the majority of Michigan residents want recreational marijuana," Makled said. "If there are certain groups trying to limit where and how it can be sold, that goes against the grain of what the overall public opinion is. If anything limits it, it should be the open free market that decides howmany facilities are necessary. These are not some shadowy organizations that are trying to come in and steal the innocence of our youth."

Dickerson, who is president of the association, told the Free Press the organization is requesting urgent action to preempt recreational marijuana advocates from claiming a grandfather clause status for the sale of recreational marijuana from existing medical marijuana dispensary locations.

If the recreational marijuana measure were to pass in November, for 24 months after the the state department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs begins to receive applications, the department may only accept applications from people who are residents of Michigan and who already have a license to operate a medical marijuana facility.

The Greenacres community, which is comprised of nearly 1,000 homes, stretches along 8 Mile and is bounded by Pembroke on the south, Woodward on the east, and Livernois on the west.

"GWCA believes that the zoning overlay is urgently needed to stop the skid-row effort that residential marijuana sales will have along 8 Mile Road," Rhoades said in the letter. "GWCA residents already see the cumulative effect of ... newly established medical marijuana dispensaries concentrated on the south side of 8 Mile Road together with existing liquor stores, cheap motels, adult books shops and strip clubs."

But Garcia said in a statement the city is not yet considering a special zoning area where recreational marijuana would be banned along 8 Mile.

"Good government creates policy based on facts and things as they exist," Garcia said. "Right now, the sale of recreational marijuana is not permitted in the City of Detroit. Therefore, it would not make a lot of sense to create policy for the sale of recreational marijuana."

However, Garcia said the city does essentially have the power to do so.

"Theoretically, the city has the authority to create prohibitions on activity in order to promote public health and safety and prohibitions can be limited to certain geographic areas," Garcia said. "However ... there needs to be a rational basis for the distinction."

Under a newly proposed ordinance, only 75 medical marijuana dispensaries would be allowed to legally operate in the City of Detroit. The ordinance seeks to cap the number of facilities citywide, after dozens of illegal shops have already been shut down. Officials previously said they've shut down more than 167 shops across the city.

Dickerson said although the city closed down the illegal dispensary near her home, she and others have observed activity there in recent months. The city said the facility was never authorized to open as a medical marijuana dispensary.

"We've been getting reports that people have been going into that facility and it's supposed to be closed so it's been an uphill battle for a couple years now," Dickerson said.

According to city records, an individual attempted to open another dispensary at the site but the city denied a permit. The city received 22 letters of opposition from community members who indicated that excessive traffic, parking, odors and loitering had been observed at site previously.

Garcia said the responsibility for enforcing the law on medical marijuana activity is now jointly shared by the city with the Michigan Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation.

"The Law Department had not received any recent complaints about 3845 W. 8 Mile," Garcia told the Free Press. "But, now that you have provided information on this address, we will look into it."

The new potential ordinance was proposed by council member James Tate earlier this year and seeks to establish more standards and rules for five types of medical marijuana facilities, including locations where medical marijuana could be grown, tested, processed, transported and dispensed to patients with state-approved medical marijuana cards.

But for Veda Ali who has lived in Greenacres since 2002, there are just too many concentrated near her home.

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Veda Ali, 51 and Ethan Ali, 6 near their home in Greenacres."It seems like every other street corner, you've got one," Ali said, speaking of the dispensaries.(Photo: Cameron Pollack, Detroit Free Press)

"It seems like every other street corner, you've got one," Ali said, as she watched her son Ethan play on their porch. "I don't think there's been anything that's happened in terms of crime since they've been here but I just think there's too many."

Rhoades said while the city has said 17 dispensaries are supposed to be legally operating on 8 Mile, he's observed many more. Rhoades said he's also spoken with at least one other community organization that is supportive of the city considering a ban.

"If you drive along 8 Mile, there are nearly 30," Rhoades said. "Our concern is all of the dispensaries will become recreational dispensaries in addition to being medical marijuana. ...An overlay will keep it from becoming concentrated along 8 Mile. Hopefully we'll get some action out of this."

Katrease Stafford is the Detroit government watchdog reporter for the Free Press, covering city issues and the community. Contact Katrease Stafford: kstafford@freepress.com or 313-223-4759.